12/31/10

The past two years, I made resolutions to read at least fifty books and did so. This year, I did not make a resolution and failed to crack thirty. So this list is probably even less interesting than usual.

I taught several classes this year, which allowed me to reread a lot of fantastic essays and short fiction from old masters (Kafka, Hoffamann, Borges, O'Connor, Marquez, Cortazar, and countless others), but impeded my complete book reading. I also started a few giant tomes, specifically Bertrand Russell's The History of Western Philosophy and Roberto Bolano's 2666, both of which I will hopefully finish in some future year.

Books I finished in chronological order (*s are rereads):

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao – Junot Diaz

Chronicles – Bob Dylan

Little Things – Jeffery Brown

Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned – Wells Tower

NOON 2001

Reality Hunger – David Shields

NOIR – Robert Coover

NOON 2010

Twenty Grand – Rebecca Curtis

Wise Blood – Flannery O’Connor

Magic For Beginners – Kelly Link

Books: A Memoir – Larry McMurtry

Nightwork – Christine Schutt

The Spot – David Means

Apex Hides the Hurt – Colson Whitehead

All the Living – C. E. Morgan

Jesus’ Son – Denis Johnson*

Billy Hazelnuts 2 – Tony Millionaire

Seven Nights – Jorge Luis Borges

The Green Child – Herbert Read

Bad Nature, or With Elvis in Mexico – Javier Marias

The Literary Conference – Cesar Aira

Patriotism – Yukio Mishima

Ghosts – Cesar Aira

Tales of Desire – Tennessee Williams

Mystery and Manners – Flannery O’Connor

Do Not Disturb – Muriel Spark

Here Comes Another Lesson – Stephen O’Connor

This feels like too few books to bother with further breakdown, as I did in previous years.